Discovery Of India By Greeks

SR No.: 269274
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong
Total Pages: 28
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 27

THE DISCOVERY OF INDIA BY THE GREEKS
141
defended the view that this Georgian text provides the link between the Oriental and the Western Christian versions. However, this Georgian version is much shorter than either the Arabic or the Greek versions. One scholar, Marr (1864-1934) supposed that it was an abridgment of an earlier and more complete rendering. Marr's hypothesis has been confirmed by the discovery of a manuscript entitled The Life of the Blessed lodasaph, by Robert P. Blake. David Lang has shown that this version is nothing but an adaptation of the Arabic book of Balauhar and Būdhāsaf. The Georgian text of this version has been published in 1957 in Tiflis and a Russian translation in 1962 also in Tiflis. According to Lang this Georgian version must have been adapted from the Arabic between the years 800 and 900 A.D. This Georgian version was rendered into Greek by St. Euthymius the Athonite, the son of a Georgian nobleman, who translated into Georgian many works of the Greek Fathers. He lived from c.955 to 1028. This Greek version has been the basis for the Latin version from which it has been translated into many European languages.
The translation of the Pañcatantra and of the story of Barlaam into Greek in the 17th century is probably the last manifestation of the long history of the cultural relations between Greece and India, a history which extends over a period of more than fifteen centuries and which forms an interesting and important chapter in the history of mankind.
ADDITIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Megasthenes : (for bibliographical information on recent publications see Franz F. Schwarz, Neue Perspektiven in den griechisch-indischen Beziehungen, OLZ, 67, 1972, cols. 5-26) O. Stein, Megasthenes, No. 2, R.-E., XV, 1931, cols. 230-326. B. Breloer, Megasthenes (etwa 300 v. Chr.) über die indische Gesellschaft, ZDMG, 88,
1933, pp. 130-164. B. Breloer, Megasthenes über die indische Stadtverwaltung, ZDMG, 89, 1934, pp. 40-67. R.C. Majumdar, The Indika of Megasthenes, JAOS, 78, 1958, pp. 273-276.